Voice UI: The past, future, and what now?

Transcript

1. 

   VOICE UI: THE PAST, THE
   FUTURE, AND… WHAT NOW?
   @bensauer
   OPEN VOICE AMSTERDAM, MAY 2018
   

   View Slide

2. ARISTOTLE
   There is only one condition in which we can
   imagine managers not needing subordinates,
   and masters not needing slaves.
   This condition would be that each instrument
   could do its own work, at the word of
   command or by intelligent anticipation.
   @bensauer
   

   View Slide

3. Audrey: Bell Labs, 1952
   

   View Slide

4. View Slide

5. Curious Rituals
   produced by The Near Future Laboratory
   

   View Slide

6. View Slide

7. Curious Rituals
   produced by The Near Future Laboratory
   

   View Slide

8. Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lapstrake/2977393345/
   

   View Slide

9. STUART REEVES

   https://is.gd/miB3Yq
   ‘Real world, complex, yet highly ordered
   multi-activity settings are the norm and
   remain a serious technical and design
   challenge for voice interfaces.
   This is the world that voice interfaces
   are going into.’
   @bensauer
   

   View Slide

10. Our true calling is to make 

    the system fail gracefully.
    

    View Slide

11. POSSIBLE FUTURES
    

    View Slide

12. @bensauer
    AMAZON’S GROWTH STRATEGY
    • TVs (Westinghouse, Element, Seiki)
    • Fridges (LG)
    • Home robots (LG)
    • Wifi speakers (Lenovo)
    • Kid’s speaker (Mattel)
    • Lamps (GE)
    @bensauer
    • Alarm clocks
    • Cars (Ford, VW)
    • Charging docks
    • Watches
    • Cameras
    • Smartphones (Huawei)
    

    View Slide

13. We’re facing a future where our
    home devices may talk by default.
    @bensauer
    

    View Slide

14. UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING
    “Invisible, everywhere computing that does not
    live on a personal device of any sort, but is in
    the woodwork everywhere.”
    

    View Slide

15. View Slide

16. View Slide

17. UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING
    • Multi-modal
    • Voice-first
    • Ever-present
    • Get your attention back
    

    View Slide

18. No-one knows where the 

    f**k this is going.
    

    View Slide

19. VUI OPPORTUNITY LENSES
    User research Brand / creative
    Customer service Future
    

    View Slide

20. VUI REALITY CHECK
    

    View Slide

21. @bensauer
    VUI USE MAY BE U-SHAPED
    @bensauer
    AWESOME
    SUCKS
    10 100 1000
    USE CASES
    

    View Slide

22. View Slide

23. @bensauer
    VUI IS LOW-BANDWIDTH
    @bensauer
    Using voice input is great because… 

    it’s faster than typing
    Listening to voice output is hard because... 

    it’s slower than reading
    

    View Slide

24. GUI VUI
    VOICE-FIRST
    @bensauer
    

    View Slide

25. VUI has poor affordance;
    people don’t know what it
    can and can’t do.
    @bensauer
    

    View Slide

26. @bensauer
    Humans expect more
    from conversations.
    @bensauer
    

    View Slide

27. The heart of VUI 

    is great writing.
    @bensauer
    

    View Slide

28. DESIGNING FOR VOICE
    

    View Slide

29. View Slide

30. When it’s easy to create, we start
    building and forget to design.
    

    View Slide

31. @bensauer
    WATCH YOUR METAPHORS
    @bensauer
    

    View Slide

32. @bensauer
    SILVERBACK, 2007
    @bensauer
    

    View Slide

33. JOHN MAEDA
    If a picture is worth a thousand words, a
    prototype is worth a thousand meetings.
    @bensauer
    

    View Slide

34. What’s the equivalent in VUI?
    

    View Slide

35. WIZARD OF OZ
    TESTING
    

    View Slide

36. @bensauer
    JEFF KELLEY’S WIZARD OF OZ TESTING
    @bensauer
    

    View Slide

37. @bensauer
    MESSY HUMAN 

    INPUT
    HOW THE SYSTEM
    RESPONDS
    

    View Slide

38. @bensauer
    WIZARD OF OZ TESTING
    • Can you fool Dorothy?
    • Does the system have all the responses?
    • Can they use/understand it?
    • What synonyms do they use?
    • What challenges have you missed?
    

    View Slide

39. Get the design 90% right 

    before a line of code is written.
    

    View Slide

40. @bensauer
    Could I go from an idea
    for a voice interface, to
    a test, in under an hour?
    CHALLENGE:
    

    View Slide

41. Demo time!
    

    View Slide

42. You know design is working 

    when it kills your early ideas.
    

    View Slide

43. @bensauer
    COMPLETE DESIGN PROCESS
    1. Establish the context of use
    2. Craft the personality
    3. Write sample dialogue
    4. Wizard of Oz testing
    5. Dialogue flow
    6. Build, test, launch
    

    View Slide

44. voiceguidelines.clearleft.com
    

    View Slide

45. Implicature 

    What are they saying 

    but not saying?
    

    View Slide

46. EXAMPLE PRINCIPLE: BE BRIEF
    When is the next train to Amsterdam?
    USER:
    The 13:05 from Utrecht to Amsterdam leaves in
    20 minutes.
    SYSTEM:
    @bensauer
    

    View Slide

47. DESIGN RESOURCES
    Test your voice idea in 1 hour

    http://tiny.cc/1hourvoicetest
    Say Wizard

    https://github.com/bensauer/saywizard
    Amazon Blueprints

    https://blueprints.amazon.com/
    

    View Slide

48. @bensauer
    LET ME HELP YOU!
    @bensauer
    

    View Slide

49. MARC WEISER
    “The most profound technologies are
    those that disappear.
    They weave themselves into the
    fabric of everyday life until they are
    indistinguishable from it.”
    @bensauer
    

    View Slide

50. I’m @bensauer.
    “AUDIENCE. thanks for listening.”
    Read more of my nonsense at: http://slapdashery.org
    

    View Slide